Maria Mourani is quitting the Bloc Québécois party says she is questioning her involvement in the sovereignty movement.

Maria Mourani met reporters Friday morning wearing the gold cross she has worn since she was a girl. “My cross is part of me, of my identity. I am Christian, Catholic, Marionite and proud to be,” she said.

MONTREAL—A Quebec values charter that proposes banning public servants from wearing religious symbols would be a “disaster” for the province that could lead to ethnic ghettos, poverty and crime, says an ex-Bloc Quebecois MP who was kicked out of her party.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has said that her government is modelling its charter of Quebec values on the system that exists in France, saying it has led to better results than in countries that have adopted a multicultural approach like the United Kingdom.

Critics in the province and across Canada have cast the proposed charter, with its workplace prohibition on “conspicuous” religious symbols for those receiving government salaries, as divisive identity politics at best and outright racism at worst.

“Our image will not take a hit in France because it appears we are trying to adapt the French model, which has been a disaster in terms of integration,” said Maria Mourani, who was sanctioned for suggesting the values charter was equivalent to ethnic nationalism.

“We all know well how many of the French suburbs are filled with millions of people from Africa and the Maghreb who aren't even considered to be French. That's now what I want for Quebec. That's not my vision.”

Mourani, who is of Lebanese ancestry, was born in Ivory Coast and immigrated to Quebec in 1988. She has since become “one of the standard bearers” of the sovereignty movement and “a model of integration,” said Lisette Lapointe, the wife of former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau. In a radio interview, she also said that both she and her husband were outraged by Mourani's expulsion from the Bloc caucus.

Mourani met reporters Friday morning wearing a grey dress and the gold cross she has worn around her neck since she was a girl.

“My cross is part of me, of my identity. I am Christian, Catholic, Marionite and proud to be. I'm not going to hide who I am,” she said.

But the values charter that has divided Quebecers and even those in the sovereigntist ranks has made Mourani rethink her core political beliefs.

“Who will defend my identity? Will it be the independence movement or not?” she said, choking back tears. “I can't give you an answer.”

The religious-clothing ban was first leaked to the media nearly a month ago, but was only formally presented to the public this week by Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville, who has said that the state must be neutral as well as appear to be neutral, meaning that police, teachers, doctors, nurses and daycare workers should leave their articles of faith at home for the greater good.

Before the legislation has even been presented in the Quebec legislature, questions have been raised about the constitutionality of the charter, which would make restrictions on religious freedoms guaranteed in the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms.

The Star reported last Sunday that a constitutional scholar was hired to provide legal advice to the PQ government last spring and suggested that a clothing ban apply only to those in authority positions, such as police, judges, teachers and prison guards, but not doctors, nurses or daycare workers.

On Friday morning, Montreal's La Presse reported that the government's own legal advisers had ruled that the values charter would not pass a legal test if challenged in the courts.

In Quebec City, provincial justice minister Bernard St-Arnaud said the outlines of the charter unveiled this week were aimed at inciting “collective discussions, at framing a debate.”

“This . . . will lead to legislation that must pass all the legal filters of the government, including the legislative committee over which I preside,” he said.

Critics have suggested the Marois government only wants to use the values charter as a springboard for a snap election later this fall, hoping that it will rally a sufficient number of Quebec nationalists to its ranks to form a majority government.

“If this is a political strategy, for me it is not good,” said Mourani, who said she has made it her mission to make the hard sell of sovereignty in Montreal's ethnic communities in an attempt to recruit new members, candidates and donors.

“People are scared. They feel excluded from the ‘we’ that appears to be ‘we Quebecers’ — one in which they no longer see themselves. I can understand that they no longer see themselves in this identity.”

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